Overview
Steptoe’s Alan Cohn was quoted extensively in a Legaltech News article titled “Will Initial China/US Cybersecurity Agreement Be Effective?” The article, published September 28, discusses an initial cybersecurity agreement between China and the United States to curb cybertheft. According to a White House statement explaining the agreement, neither the US nor the Chinese government “will conduct or knowingly support cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information, with the intent of providing competitive advantages to companies or commercial sectors.”
Mr. Cohn tells Legaltech News that the agreement “will only be as effective as the Chinese want it to be. The US government has always taken the position that it does not engage in espionage for corporate gain, so this is really about the Chinese changing their approach to economic competition. And that will be a challenge.”
“Economic espionage has been such an important aspect of Chinese economic activity generally that it will be difficult for Chinese internet officials to reign in this kind of activity,” Mr. Cohn says.
The full article can be read at Legaltech News (subscription required).